Source: Eagles' kicker Cody Parkey done for season

THE EAGLES' first victory of 2015 came at a price.

Kicker Cody Parkey's season is over after he suffered what a source close to the situation called "an extensive tear" of his groin in pregame warmups before Sunday's game at the Jets. And just before halftime, starting right guard Andrew Gardner went down with what MRI testing showed to be a "significant" Lisfranc tear in his right foot, a source said.

Gardner probably will need season-ending surgery, the source said. He was replaced Sunday by Matt Tobin, who seems likely to slide into the starting spot this week against Washington.

Another league source said the Eagles are in the process of signing former Dolphins kicker Caleb Sturgis, once Parkey goes on IR.

Sturgis, 26, was a fifth-round draft choice from Florida in 2013 who never worked out as well as the Dolphins had hoped. He suffered some injuries and made just 77.5 percent of his field goals in two seasons.

Sturgis was 14-for-20 from 40-49 yards and 6-for-13 from 50-plus, before losing the Miami job this past training camp to rookie Andrew Franks. It might not have helped that Sturgis hurt the quad muscle on his plant leg playing in a team-organized kickball game in June.

Before the NFL Network's report that Parkey would go on IR, Eagles coach Chip Kelly said tests on Parkey, and kicker auditions yesterday, were "precautionary" after Parkey "got hurt in warmup a little bit."

Asked if a roster move for a kicker was imminent, Kelly said: "No. Everything's precautionary, just to make sure."

Kelly also said this isn't related to the groin injury that dogged Parkey through training camp, but is a new "leg" injury.

A couple of weeks ago, Parkey and Kelly insisted the groin injury had healed and was not the reason Parkey missed a 44-yard field goal attempt that could have given the Eagles a lead in the final 2 1/2 minutes of their season-opening loss in Atlanta. Parkey has placekicked well since, and he hit his only field-goal attempt Sunday at the Jets, a 30-yarder in the first quarter, after doing whatever he did in warmups.

His kickoffs were noticeably weaker, though. On Sunday, Parkey kicked off five times, all in the first half, and did not manage a touchback. His second kickoff of the game slid out of bounds, giving the Jets the ball at the 40 and flipping field position for several series.

Kelly doesn't meet with reporters again until tomorrow, but he'll certainly be asked about the team's handling of Parkey, a Pro Bowl kicker last season as a rookie, who also was dogged by a groin problem down the stretch.

Gardner, meanwhile, is a 29-year-old journeyman who spent time with Miami, Minnesota, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Houston, without ever starting a game, before he came to the Eagles last year. He started eight games for a struggling Eagles line in 2014, then won the right guard spot in this year's training camp after the release of Todd Herremans.

Gardner's absence will provide another challenge to an offensive line that has labored to become even minimally effective in the run game this season.

Gardner recently signed a three-year contract extension that will average $1.5 million a year, if he remains on the roster. Only $500,000 of the new money was guaranteed.

Seems reasonably likely that if Andrew Gardner goes on IR, Julian Vandervelde will rejoin the fold yet again . . . Chip Kelly confirmed that linebacker Kiko Alonso was seeing Dr. James Andrews yesterday for a second opinion on Alonso's partial tear of his repaired left ACL. Alonso might be able to play with the tear, but an exam by Eagles doctors showed laxity in the ligament, and he would be at risk for a total tear.

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian